


And Now I am Fading

by flightlessboy



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-29
Updated: 2013-06-29
Packaged: 2017-12-16 12:32:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/862069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightlessboy/pseuds/flightlessboy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal Au where Will is not the sick one. Hannibal is, and it's going to take his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Now I am Fading

Day 1  
The first time Hannibal Lecter knew something was not as it should be, he was in a therapy session. As he took notes on his patient, he saw his hand shaking. It was wrong- Dr. Lecter took impeccable care of his body. When his patient’s session was over, Dr. Lecter took a moment to compose himself and mentally compile a to-do list. He had just one year.

Day 30  
Dr. Lecter has stopped seeing all but a few patients now- referred each to a new doctor as soon as he could. Whenever a patient asked about the sudden change, Dr. Lecter assured them that all of his patients were finding new doctors, as his health was beginning to fail. Perhaps they noticed- Hannibal’s slowly deteriorating coordination. His trouble walking, his tremors. They probably assumed it was some kind of natural cause. Will Graham, who he still saw as a patient, worried over him constantly. He told Will he would be retiring soon, that Will would need to find a new doctor. The headaches were becoming more frequent.

Day 75  
Most of Hannibal Lecter’s affairs were in order- procrastination was not in his habits. He’d derived some pleasure from leaving all of his belongings and his estates to Will Graham. Will would discover the true identity of the Chesapeake Ripper. As Dr. Lecter had no family, it was his most convenient choice anyways. Someone had to know. Hannibal had stopped leaving the house unless absolutely necessary, and no longer entertained guests. His food no longer looked a masterpiece. He could not acquire meat. He was beginning to have trouble swallowing.

Day 182  
Hannibal Lecter stopped seeing Will Graham as a patient. He bought a cane, and the indignity irked him more than he’d have liked. Sometimes old colleagues would stop by to ask about his health. He would tell them that the tests had yet to find anything. He never told them the truth- once in his youth he must have been sloppy. He must have eaten some amount of brain, even 30 years ago, and his oversight had come back to haunt him. The headaches were unbearable.

Day 230  
Dr. Lecter weighed a frightening 135 lbs. He struggled to feed himself- both to get his fork to his mouth in the first place, and then to chew and swallow whatever slop he had managed to prepare for himself. His legs and arms hurt all the time, almost more than his head. Sometimes, his muscles would jerk. Will Graham had stopped by on one of these occasions, and insisted on taking Hannibal to a doctor. Dr. Lecter dismissed the idea, assured Will that the worst was just now passing and he would be getting well soon. He insisted so from his wheelchair.

Day 300  
Dr. Lecter almost never left his bed, and allowed nobody to visit. His shaking was uncontrollable. He was a horrific mess of shudders and jerks and pain, embarrassed of the cries and moans that slipped between his quivering lips. Old wolves do not die gracefully. When their teeth fall out, they must rely on others or die. Hannibal Lecter was an old wolf. He did not rely on anyone.

Day 345  
Will Graham came by Dr. Lecter’s house to check on his recovery. He smelled a faint but recognizable reek from inside the house. When Will broke the door down and found Hannibal Lecter’s room, the stench was unbearable. Dr. Lecter had been dead for some time.

Day 350  
Jack Crawford came when Will Graham summoned him to hear Dr. Lecter’s cause of death. The medical examiner explained to them what Kuru was, how it was passed from contaminated brain cells to human mouth, to eat the next brain. A cannibal. If Jack smashed all of the dishes in his house that night, no one would have seen it. Will Graham’s pain was witnessed by his dogs- 9, now- and Alana Bloom. It was the next morning before either of them chose to speak.  
Day 352  
Will Graham received Dr. Lecter’s will. The house, the office, all of it now belonged to him. When Will went through every corner of Dr. Lecter’s extravagant house, he found the basement. He found the Chesapeake Ripper. Among the steel tables and cutting implements, he threw up. Every dinner in this house had been a lie. An act of monstrosity. Hannibal Lecter had been sick in many ways. Will wondered if he would be sick, now, too. In any of those ways.

Day 365  
Will Graham boards a plane to Florida. He has retired. Everything from Virginia has been sold, and he planned to spend the rest of his life forgetting the man who had once been his friend. He kept almost nothing from Virginia- not Alana’s phone number or Beverly’s condolences. Anyone who wished to keep contact with him would be disappointed.  
Will didn’t have the heart to leave his dogs. He took them with him, and that was all he took. That, and the fear that one day his coordination would leave him. That he would lose his dignity, his independence, his life, to Hannibal Lecter’s ghost. He feared that one day, he’d look down, and see that his hands had begun to shake, if only slightly.  
-  
They never did.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thanks for reading! If you're interested in reading more about Kuru, here is a link for an easy enough place to start!  
> http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/kuru/overview.html


End file.
